St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated the world over on Saturday 17th March and as ever will have an lot more to do with guinness than it does St Patrick. In our family to keep my (half-Irish) husband from celebrating the whole day in an Irish pub we celebrate his Celtic roots with our own Paddy's Day party at home.

As celebrations go it's pretty simple plenty of liquid refreshments. Decking the family out all in green so they look like a gang of wee leprechauns. Digging out the Irish folk music we purchased in a pub in Dingle many years ago and inviting as many Irish friends and family as we can fit in our kitchen (as that's where all St Paddy parties always seem to end up).

I've never cooked anything more sophisticated than good old ham and cabbage - just stick a joint of ham in a pan with some thyme, parsley, onions, cabbage and a splash of cream and you have something suitably Irish to soak up all that guinness. It's best accompanied with plenty of potatoes. For dessert I follow the recipe for a regular fruit loaf and add a generous helping of guinness to that. Do watch how many slices the children end up eating though!

It's a simple plan but it always works well and by the end the guests practically Riverdance their (wobbly) way home.

Learn more about this author, Kirstie Speke.
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